Overstood (Primary Title)
Sanford Biggers, American, born 1970 (Artist)
“We took this picture after we had a four-person presentation featuring Bobby and Huey. That was the last time the four of us were together. . . . Then they locked us all up.” —George Murray
In this work, Biggers appropriates photographic imagery from Ernest K. Bennett’s coverage of a press conference held in the wake of student protests at San Francisco State University in 1970. At the center of the unrest was the dismissal of Professor George Murray, who joined the Black Panthers headquartered across the bay in Oakland, California, and openly espoused the principles of the group. Murray’s dismissal by university administrators was met with a series of student-organized protests and press conferences. Captured in Bennett’s lens and reinterpreted here by Biggers are George Murray, the central figure in dark glasses, flanked by Ben Stewart, head of the Black Student Union to his left, and Bobby Seale, chairman of the Black Panther Party to his immediate right. An unnamed figure is at the far right.
The wall relief—created using sequins on canvas with three African carved sculptures encased in polyresin and glitter—not only serves to reframe and re-present an historical moment, but also provides a linguistic context for that moment of crystalline enlightenment, when one understands all too well the implications of words, acts, and actions.
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